1. Field of Invention
This invention pertains to a beehive having an improved structure which facilitates the harvesting or collection of honey and permits easy inspection of the beehive.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Beehives generally consist of substantially rectangular enclosures holding a plurality of frames. The frames have the same size and are disposed in a row vertically along the enclosure. A mesh made of wire or other material is stretched on each frame to hold the foundation, and the bees build the wax honey combs to store the honey. The normal beehive may be made of two tiers or rows of frames disposed in top of each other and separated by excluders placed between broodchamber and honey supers (a queen trap). The bottom tier is usually used by the queen and the drones as a broodchamber, and the top tier is were most of the honey is stored. The completed hives with a family of bees transferred therein is usually placed in the fields with flowers in bloom. After the flowers have bloomed, the supers parts of hives are collected, the bees are removed from the hives, for example by smoking, and each frame is extracted from the hive so that the honey can be collected. However while the bees are still living in the hive in addition to the honey, other organic materials including propolis deposit on the interior surfaces and over time form a hard deposit thereon. As a result the removal of the frames is very difficult.
Beehives are known in the art which have access doors opening laterally to permit the frames to be drawn out of the hives in a linear motion. See for instance U.S. Pat. No. 132,052 issued in 1872 to Canniff, and U.S. Pat. No. 1,447,713 issued in 1922 to David. However these beehives have not been very successful because the frames were very difficult to remove therefrom as discussed above.
Most common beehives today open from the top to allow the frames to be lifted upwardly out of the hives. See for instance the 1989 Bee Supply Catalog issued by the A. I. Root Co. of Medina, Ohio. However, this structure has a number of disadvantages. The usual practice today is to stack several beehives on top of each other while they are transported to and from the field. However once the hives are collected they must be unstacked before each hive can be opened. This proves to be a very time consuming operation. In addition, many bees get injured and killed while the frames are being removed. Moreover it is almost impossible to open a beehive to inspect a beehive in the field to check if the bees have contacted any diseases in case of need or necessity.